Caterpillar sued over C13/C15 engine problems

20 August 2010

Caterpillar is being sued by frustrated customers over failures, ineffective repairs and financial losses in C13 and C15 ACERT engines, according to a report by Truckinginfo.com. The law suit was filed in March by Miller, Curtis & Weisbrod LLC, of Dallas, TX on behalf of three Oklahoma-based trucking companies who bought a total of 90 C15 engines in 2007 and 2008. Since then, more fleets have joined the complaint and the law firm is advertising for dissatisfied owners of C13/C15 engines to join the suit.

Most of the alleged engine problems seem to be related to the diesel particulate filter (DPF) regeneration system. The DPF would not regenerate for a number of reasons—such as clogged injectors, sensor malfunctions, or fuel line issues—which triggers engine shut down by the electronic control module.

Caterpillar model year 2007-2009 ACERT engines used a fuel burner regeneration. Caterpillar decided to exit the US highway truck engine business before the 2010 emission standards took effect.

While the law suit specifically targets Caterpillar, the Truckinginfo editorial notes that engines from all builders had problems and there may be as many or more issues with Cummins diesels, partly because there are more Cummins engines on the road. Many in the industry place ultimate blame for the situation on the US EPA, who forced increasingly strict emission standards on the industry in a short time frame, while dismissing warnings that the equipment devised to meet the limits couldn’t be properly tested and would be very expensive.